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Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Top 15 “Background” Performances of 2013

I love actors. All actors. Even the ones who only appear on
screen for a matter of seconds. With this list, I use the term background
loosely as I hope to draw attention to some very impactful supporting roles
that captured my eye last year. Here are a handful of actors from 2013 who stepped
out of the background and asserted themselves as scene stealing players.

The (first) cold wife in 12
Years a Slave

Played by Liza J. Bennett

“Your children will soon be forgotten.” It’s the most
shocking line in the most devastating film of the year, delivered to haunting
perfection.

The young lovers in
Before Midnight

Played by Ariane Labed and Yiannis Papadopoulos

Hey, look, there’s Jesse and Celine, 18 years younger, practical,
in love, uninhibited with happiness, not yet aware of the bitterness of love.

The airplane
passenger in Blue Jasmine

Played by Joy Carlin

Carlin gave us the first great laugh of Blue Jasmine, not to mention our first insight into the delusions
of the complex title character.

The corpsman in
Captain Phillips

Played by Danielle Albert

They did it twice. The first time, Albert, a Navy corpsman in
real life, couldn’t succumb her stage fright. When they rolled for a second
take, Albert nailed it. She helped deliver the scene of the year with
precision, accuracy, and compassion.

The L.A. douchebag in
Enough Said

Played by Christopher Nicholas Smith

The first time Julia Louis-Dreyfus struggled to walk up the
stairs to a client’s apartment in Enough
Said, I stared at the douchebag waiting for her and
thought, “Holy shit, that dude is so
L.A.”

The racist cop in
Fruitvale Station

played by Kevin Durand

He’s a white cop who seemed to enjoy busting a bunch of
black kids a little too much. But
after tragedy struck, Durrand’s shift from aggressor to shocked defender was
startling.

The SexyKitten in Her

Voiced by Kristen Wiig

Her hasn’t been
released in too many theaters yet, so I don’t want to spoil Wiig’s contribution
to it. But just you wait. She earns one of the year’s best laughs.

The little girl in
The Hunt

Played by Annika Wedderkopp

Perhaps the best child performance of the year, little Klara
wasn’t a monster, she was young and confused, entangled in a lie.

The alleyway bruiser
in Inside Llewyn Davis

Played by Stephen Payne

You only find guys like this in Coen brothers movies: lean,
dark, quiet, scary, funny – what a perfect way to own two minutes of screen
time.

The cousins in
Nebraska

Played by Devin Ratray & Tim Driscoll

The funniest bit in Nebraska?
Ratray and Driscoll giving Will Forte endless amounts of crap for taking so
long to drive to their house. Priceless.

The police captain in
Prisoners

Played by Wayne Duvall

Duvall’s interactions with Jake Gyllenhaal in Prisoners were so remarkable in their
accuracy. I totally believed that’s how they actually talked to each other.

The young, angry rapper
in Short Term 12

Played by Keith Stanfield

Stanfield’s impromptu bedside rap was one of the most moving
moments of 2013. The sound engineer who worked on my latest film also captured
sound for Short Term 12. He said they
shot this scene once (with two cameras), and by the end, everyone on set was
crying. I love that Stanfield’s
performance has been nominated for an Independent Spirit Award.

The creeper in To the
Wonder

Played by Danyeil Inman

I’ll never forget the woman peering in through the priest’s
window, eerily taunting him. This moment so beautifully captures the inner
torment of Javier Bardem’s character.

The Sampler in
Upstream Color

Played by Andrew Sensenig

There are so many questions surrounding Sensenig’s poignant portrayal
of The Sampler. How does he know to go to a field and wait for people to come
to him? How long did it take him to figure out the process? And why? Why does
this man do what he does? Such captivating work.

The aunt in The Wolf
of Wall Street

Played by Joanna Lumley

Easily one of my favorite performances from Martin
Scorsese’s frantic new film. Look at her eyes. Watch them. THAT’S acting.

59 comments:

RESPECT for your inclusion of Annika Wedderkopp from The Hunt. She had the second most important role of the film, and was absolutely perfect for the part. It wouldn't have been half as good without her.

The young lovers were nothing like Celine and Jesse. They were horrible people. I hated them so much. Thank god for the nice old lady who speaks afterwards.

I saw Short Term 12 yesterday and that scene was soooo great. I swear, if it was a year with lesser number of fantastic performances (39 and counting), the guy would have definitely made my list.

And yes, though I wanted the little girl in The Hunt to die while I watching the film, she really was incredible. And a bit creepy, as all kids are.

As for any choices of my own, even though it wasn't so much for his acting, I can only think of the guy who played the younger version of the protagonist in The Great Beauty. He was gorgeous and I literally sat through most of the movie thinking he'll come back. And he was there for like 5 seconds but it almost made the visual assault of that movie worth it. Oh and the guy who gets beheaded in This Is The End. So funny.

Great list. A few of these films I haven't seen yet so I'm going to look for these little performances when I finally get around to them. Another performance I was blown away by that very few people talked about is Mana Ashida's performance in Pacific Rim. She's the little girl that plays Young Mako in the flashback sequences. She's on screen for a total of like five minutes, but it's one of the more convincing performances from a child I have seen in awhile. Points should be given to her as well for reacting to practically nothing, given how much CGI there is.

So glad to see some of these small-but-vital performances recognized. Of the ones I've seen so far, I particularly loved "The Sampler" and Lumley's Aunt Emma.

I'm curious what your thoughts are on Alfre Woodard in 12 Years. I had expected to see her in your "15 female" list, but figured it was "too small" for consideration. For me, her's one of the most wrenching performances of the year--and one of a half dozen great female roles in that film alone.

Woodard stunned me in that film. Like so many performances in 12 Years, Woodard's role is a great demonstration of what a truly great actor can do with just one scene. She was so startling in her delivery. I loved everything about it.

Haven't had the chance to see "Her" or "Upstream Color" yet, but these are some real stand-out performances. Joanna Lumley is delectable in "The Wolf of Wall Street"....but when is she anything but wonderful? Yes, I do own the entire "Absolutely Fabulous" series! Great job!

Other than the British series "Absolutely Fabulous", she was a Bond girl in the 60s, had a cute series with David McCallum-"Sapphire and Steele" and did some great voicework for Tim Burton. Wonderful actress with an insane ability for physical comedy!

Great little list here (I will post my best of on here as soon as I've seen more of what I've wanted to). So happy to see love for The Hunt on here though, if I hadn't seen it last year it easily would have been one of my favorites and am so glad you enjoyed (though perhaps that might not be the best word to use to describe it) the film. This list is very cool though. Definitely agree with Wiig's cameo in Her and the performances in Nebraska, TWoWS, Blue Jasmine, and Prisoners - such great small roles.

Oh, Joanna Lumley was great in The Wolf of Wall Street. That one scene she had w/ Leo was fucking gold. The cousins in Nebraska were amazing. One of them was Buzz from the Home Alone movies. I remember that douche in Enough Said. I was like "are you going to fucking help or what you asshole?"

There's another character in The Wolf of Wall Street I think deserves a mention and that is Stephanie Kurtzuba as Kimmie Belzer. She stood out for me as a lady who is like one of the guys. She didn't take shit from anyone and how Jordan mentioned her as someone who needed help and he did and she was grateful for that. She was great in that.

Brilliant list! Keith Stanfield could get an Oscar nom for that song. It's a long shot, but it'd be amazing. Glad to see Annika Wedderkopp on here too. She definitely gives one of the best child performances of the year. My pick would be Conner Chapman in The Selfish Giant.

Alex, it's great to see a mention of the lovers in Before Midnight. The extra characters added some much-needed depth to the story. I'm also intrigued by the Sampler in Upstream Color. I like how the mystery remains with him throughout the movie.

Love this list, Alex. I really, really do. I love that you focus on these performances. Of all the haunting things in "Lleweyn Davis" I think what has haunted me the most is Payne's voice saying "Fucking cesspool. You can have it." There's just something so dismissive of the entire culture, the entire civilization, that the film presents in those lines. And the L.A. douchebag. Yeah, the L.A. douchebag.

My background performance of the year was Brie Larson in Don Jon. But you knew that.

Your end of the year posts and especially this one (weird maybe, but Kevin Durand is frequently my favorite part of anything I see him in) convinced me to finally watch Fruitvale Station, which I guess I kinda dismissed when it came out. And I liked it a lot! So thanks for that.

And also, I think the guy from Short Term 12 was named Marcus maybe? And he was absolutely amazing.

Really great to see To The Wonder mentioned here, I found that actress' contribution to be innumerable in driving home the theme of loneliness and the listless nature of all the characters involved. That movie sure did get slept on, I thought it was wonderful. Recently watched The Hunt and man, Wedderkopp is perfect. What a great film, holy shit.

Loved that you included Annika Wedderkopp. I too thought she gave the best performance by a child actor in 2013. But one background performance I would say stuck with me is by the actress who played the friend Adele got into a fight with in Blue Is The Warmest Color. I don't know her name, but she was brilliant yet despicable as Adele's friend who suddenly puts her down for being different, so to speak.

Dude that is a GREAT call about Adele's friend in Blue is the Warmest Color. Her transition from friend to enemy is swift and actually kind of terrifying. Nearly every single "out" friend I have has a story similar to that one. Goddamn shame.